DE 10 2011 054 230 A1 discloses lighting apparatus for vehicles with a plurality of light sources arranged in a matrix and an optical unit allocated to the same for generating a specified light distribution. To make the light distribution uniform, the optical unit has an upstream optical unit that is immediately adjacent in the emission direction of the light sources. The upstream optical unit has a plurality of upstream optical units, each configured as flat strip elements and all arranged relative to each other in the form of a grid. For this purpose, each of the strip elements has slots allowing them to be inserted into each other crosswise creating checkerboard-like openings which are arranged flush with the light sources. The light emitted by the light sources is reflected multiple times on the flat sides of the strip elements and thus preformed. A disadvantage of the strip grid formed by the strip elements is that due to their flat arrangement, the configuration to calculate the light distribution is limited. The degree of reflection of the strip elements is also limited.